As I read an article about some millennials not having children because of their fear of what a warming planet could do to them, I remembered the young woman pushing the stroller in my neighborhood. I had just cut back the ivy growing over the sidewalk as she came around the corner. Unlike many of the nannies you see walking their infant charges in New York, she was cooing and talking with her baby.
I have to admit, I’m a sucker for babies. I love to hold them, Pat them on their backs, and even coo a bit, but then my better sense gets hold of me and I return the baby to its mother, thinking, “I’m really glad I’m past that…” Having a baby is more than just a statement of hope. It is, or should be, a commitment to a planet with a future.
The millennial generation is taking the issue of climate catastrophe seriously, much more seriously than many older people. The millennials are challenging us to stop what we are doing to the planet. Too many politicians get campaign contributions from big oil and other climate destroyers. They need to be replaced.
Prayer for the Day
Indeed, O God, we know what we must do beyond recycling bottles
But we do not know how best to speak to those elected;
Realizing the role of money in our nation’s political life,
We often feel voiceless and our concerns ignored.
Grant us the strength of the young so we do not surrender
To the lethargy that age can bring but spring us into action.
In the name of the One who gives us hope for the future,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.
Oscar Ameringer, German-American political organizer (1870-1943)
Unfortunately, money in politics is an insidious thing – and a loophole in our campaign finance system was taken advantage of with money going to existing or new 527 groups with the sole purpose of influencing elections.
Olympia Snowe, U.S. Senator from Maine 1995-2013
Save me, O God, by your name, and through your might, take up my cause.
O God, hear my prayer, hearken to my mouth’s utterances.
For strangers have risen against me, and oppressors have sought my life.
They did not set God before them.
Psalm 54: 1-3 (trans. Robert Alter)